Me Made June, Days 7-20

Whew! It's been quite a while since I posted my latest me-made outfits, but my excuse is that I was in Europe, then I was recovering from jet lag and unpacking, then I was recovering from getting my wisdom teeth pulled!

It was really difficult to pack for our 1-year anniversary trip to England and France with the whole me-made constraint in place. I realized that much of what I've made is made for San Diego weather; in other words, it's totally inappropriate for the rainy gray weather of England this time of year. That said, I employed a lot of leggings and cardigans and boots. Not all of it worked, and some outfits were pretty uninspired, to be honest. Things got a little better in France, where it was a little bit warmer and sunnier.


Days 7-8: We were on the plane and train for many hours, so I settled for this refashioned t-shirt with jeans. I got this buttery-soft large jersey t-shirt from the dollar store and appliqued the feathers and then re-did the side seams so that it would fit better. On a whim I also cut the formerly crew-neck down to a more flattering V.

Day 9: To go see the Tower of London, I wore one of the first skirts I ever made -- just a simple cotton elastic waist skirt with a t-shirt, leggings, and one of my favorite elastic belts. This skirt was made before I knew about the difference between quilting and apparel fabrics, so it's pretty pouffy and stiff, but I guess it works for the look.

Day 10: We were so busy that day (lunch at Gordon Ramsay's at Claridges, Westminster Abbey, then train to Birmingham), I didn't take a picture! But I ended up re-wearing that outfit later in the trip.

Day 11: We visited a real live honest-to-goodness castle and it was a beautiful day. I celebrated by wearing a whole me-made outfit, just a simple black t-shirt with a tiered, gathered skirt. The skirt fabric is special to me since my mom bought it many, many years ago to make me a dress. I think this was in middle school! But at any rate, I found the extra fabric in her stash when I went home and made a new skirt for myself.

Day 12: It stormed like crazy, so no skirts or dresses (which is all I ever really make, so it seemed, when I was going through my suitcase!). I wore one of the first t-shirts I ever made, embellished with an earring I found in my classroom. The workmanship was pretty terrible, considering I didn't know about using a ballpoint needle for knits, but I love the teal color.

Day 13: Another traveling day, as we took the plane to Paris. I wore one of my favorite knit skirts with a very hard-to-see-in-this-picture toile pattern. Excuse the mess of my duffel bag on the floor of the hotel room behind me.

Day 14: We visit the Musee Rodin and Notre Dame, for which I felt the need to dress up a bit. I wore one of my favorite dresses ever, made from two red jersey pillowcases! The color is so vivid, but it is a super comfortable dress since everything is elastic. I dressed it up a bit with a beaded flower-thing from a cardigan, and my favorite belt.

I've worn this dress before for a photoshoot with Eric and our good friends, Orange Turtle Photography (shoot blogged here and here). I love this dress, but it's hard to wear too often because it's so distinctive. Also, people always want to know why I'm so dressed up.

Day 15: One of my favorite entirely me-made outfits (not hard to choose, really, since I tend to make a lot of hard-to-coordinate separates)! Drape-y cream-colored jersey top, thrifted belt, and refashioned large hideous dress to Anthro-esque maxi skirt. Perfect for visiting the Opera Garnier and the Louvre.

Day 16: I rewore my yellow dress from earlier in the month to visit the Montparnasse Cemetery and take the train back to London. Hmm, I never realized how much jersey I have in my me-made wardrobe. At least it's all comfy and non-wrinkly.































Day 17: Another rainy museum day in London -- the Natural History and the V&A. To my dismay, the fashion and textiles at the V&A collections are CLOSED until 2012! That was my whole reason for wanting to go!!! Anyway. I wore a refashioned sweater (bought from the dollar store again, but with the sleeves falling apart) with a me-made skirt (McCall's 5803).

Day 18: We head back to San Diego! Another me-made jersey dress with the now-familiar belt.

Day 19: Me-made peasant-top for church and dinner at Souplantation to catch up with friends! The belt is actually a drapery tie and a button.

Day 20: Suddenly confronted with the lack of clean clothes in my closet, I dug out this dress from last summer...it's supposed to be one of those endlessly re-styleable dresses, a la American Apparel's Le Sac Dress. I just wore it the boring way for running errands, along with my trusty belt!